Dallas Cowboys Spoils New York Giants Night of Commemorating Team's Past Super Bowl Champions

For New York it was a night to honor the success of the Giants by celebrating their franchises Super Bowl championship teams. For Eli Manning and his teammates, they wanted to top the night off with a win over division rival, Dallas. However, Tony Romo and the Cowboys had other ideas.

     The first quarter was rather uneventful as both teams exchanged three and out, following that up by exchanging turnovers (Giant's fumble, Cowboys turnover on downs) After a Tony Romo interception by Michael Boley, he returned the ball inside the ten and on top of that moved the ball half the distance to the goal after a Horse Collar penalty set up 1st & Goal inside the 1 yd. line. That penalty ,however, ended up saving the Cowboys a touchdown, as the Giants failed to punch the ball in after two rushing attempts(a problem that was a reoccurring theme all night) and an incomplete pass in the end zone forced the Giants to settle for a field goal.

    The Giants next offensive possession was another 3 and out, giving the Cowboys one more shot to score before the end of the half. Dallas finally ended up taking advantage of New York's weak secondary,(which was has been a problem for them as late, due to starters and backups getting hurt) when Romo connected with Dez Bryant down the sideline for a huge game of 38 yards and finished off the scoring drive two plays later when Romo was flushed out of the pocket, connecting with a wide open Kevin Ogletree in the end zone, giving the Cowboys a 7-3 lead heading into the half.

    The Cowboys received the ball first in the second half and drove down the field for the same exact result they had before the end of the first half. Romo threw another pass for a TD to Ogletree, when he blew right past defender Corey Webster giving the Cowboys a 14-3 advantage. The Giants, though, refused to quit and responded quickly. Key plays by both Domenik Hixon and Ahmad Bradshaw gave the Giants first downs. Hixon then caught another pass for 39 yards, with Bradshaw immediately running it in for a touchdown to cap off the scoring drive, trimming the Dallas lead to four once again. The Cowboys responded with a field goal to make it 17-10 at the end of three quarters.

   The Cowboys defense again forced the Giants to punt the ball once again. Dallas  first possession of the fourth quarter consisted of penalties by both teams, most of which were committed by the Cowboys. After coming up with three first downs, even after three penalties, the Cowboys were once again in position to score until the Cowboys committed two straight penalties that pushed them back 20 yards setting up 1st and 30 from the Giants 34. Just like other plays in the current drive, the Cowboys had no problem answering right back by having their receivers continue to blow right past by a fatigued New York secondary, as Romo connected with Miles Austin for a 34 yard TD pass to give the Cowboys a two touchdown lead and successfully scoring on their first 4 possessions of the second half.

   The Giants desperately needed a score and fast!  New York wasted no time and came up big twice on two fourth down plays to move the chains and avoid a turnover on downs. Immediately after successfully converting on their second fourth down situation, Manning hooked up with Martellus Bennett(who was let go by the Cowboys in the off season) on a 9 yard pass for a touchdown to once again make it a one possession game.  With three timeouts still remaining as well as the two minute warning, New York decided to kick the ball deep in hopes they could force Dallas into a 3 and out giving them plenty of time to have a chance of tying the game up. Two straight rushing attempts by DeMarco Murray set up 3rd and short, then with Cowboys appearing to have the 1st down until a holding call brought it back making it 3rd and long. The game came down to this, Dallas needing a first down to seal the game, with New York needing a stop to have one last chance to tie it up. Tony Romo received the snap and went to his favorite target of the night, Kevin Olgetree(who already had two receiving touchdowns) who arguably had his most important catch of the game, giving the Cowboys a fresh set of downs and preventing the Giants from getting the ball one last time. Taking a knee for the final three plays of the game, Dallas ran the clock out to seal the win on the opening game of the 2012 NFL season over the defending Super Bowl Champions .

Important Game Notes
- DeMarcus Ware's sack in the first quarter was the 100th of his career.
- New York is the first Super Bowl defending champion to lose their first game of the season after the NFL's inception in 2004 of having the champions play at home on opening night.
- Penalties/Yards Dallas 13/86  New York 4/33

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